Nigeria currently accounts for 13 percent of the world’s maternal deaths, with 36,000 women dying in pregnancy or childbirth each year. The Nigerian Health Ministry is currently working to carry out the Harmonized Country Plan of Priority Interventions (HCPPI) with the intention to save the lives of an additional 420,000 mothers and children by 2015 at a total cost of $650 million, but was facing a significant challenge funding the program. With Norway’s help, the program will now flourish.

“The Tripartite Agreement we have signed today represents one of the many efforts to meet the resource gap,” said Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu. “We have available commitments totaling $121 million currently being mobilized through projects from the Private Health Sector Alliance, UNICEF, GFATM, the Federal Ministry of Health, USAID, and GE Healthy Imagination among other, leaving $299 [million] outstanding.”

In allowing for better implementation of HCPPI, Norway’s grant will help Nigeria meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by next year. The fourth and fifth MDGs called on countries to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds, reduce their national maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters, and achieve universal access to reproductive health and family planning. In Nigeria, only 9.8 percent of women are using family planning services, and 16.1 percent have an unmet need for family planning services.